1. Field of Invention
The present invention pertains to controlling electronic devices. With greater particularity, the invention pertains to remote control of audio/visual devices. With still greater particularity, the invention pertains to methods and apparatus for controlling the use of the jump button in remote controls for devices which select channels.
2. Description of the Background Art
A remote control is a piece of equipment used to issue commands from a distance, commonly to an electronic device like a television or stereo from herein referenced as audio/visual (AV) equipment. This device is not connected with a wire; instead it communicates “wirelessly” via infrared (IR) frequency, radio frequency, Bluetooth communications, or any other type of wireless communication method that is available. For simplicity, although the terms “remote” and “remote control” can potentially have different meanings, from this point on unless otherwise indicated their meaning shall be exactly the same. Prior to the invention of the remote control, the only way in which to control an electronic device was by utilizing the buttons physically attached to the electronic device. Some time later a “wired” remote control was invented that allowed communication with the electronic device from a distance while the remote control was still connected to the device via a lengthy wire. The present standard is a remote control which controls the electronic device from a distance without wires. It is without question that remote controls have revolutionized the popularity of almost every electronic device, including televisions, cell phones, and video game systems, as well as many others. Remote controls also make it possible to control very small electronic devices that would otherwise be impossible to control via physical buttons without the assistance of very tiny fingers or finger like computerized controls.
Nearly all new AV devices purchased today come as standard with a remote control. It is common in the typical home in the Unites States, from herein referenced as user, to find in the primary room for AV multiple AV devices. This means that there are at least three or four remote controls needed to control all the AV devices in the room. A universal remote, like the name implies, is a single remote that can control a plethora of AV devices. The way in which the remote control works is not as important as the fact that it reduces the number of remotes needed by the user to control all of their AV devices. Recently there have been two trends in the nature of universal remotes. The first and more popular trend, which is utilized by third party vendors, has been toward the use of liquid crystal display (LCD) touch/viewable screens to aide in the functionality of the remote by reducing the number of physical buttons. The second trend is for the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to provide as standard equipment, especially with new televisions, a remote control that can be used to control multiple AV devices. However, the OEM's universal remote controls are often only programmed to control devices from the same manufacturer as the television, although other manufacturer's AV devices can be controlled in certain cases. This trend has been utilized by the OEM manufactures to counter the purchase of third party vendor remote controls. The importance of a universal remote in its approach to minimize the number of remote controls the user must account for has been the primary focus of the device with each new generation's development.
Almost all manufacturers of handheld electronic devices are trying to design as much technology into the smallest space possible. With each new generation each new gadget becomes smaller, yet it is packed with more features than ever before. The recent trend in remote control design has been no different than any other handheld electronic gadget. The trend in remote controls has been in an effort to reduce the clutter that is associated with utilizing multiple remotes to control multiple AV equipment. However, this minimization of the number of remotes to be utilized has in no way improved the functionality of the remote. Often these universal remotes are cluttered with more buttons than any single remote controlling an AV device, as would be expected for a multi-device controlling remote control. Still most will agree that having one remote control for multiple AV devices, even if the remote contains more buttons, is better than having multiple remotes for the same multiple AV devices. The reason most will agree is that they would prefer to have all the buttons in one place rather than having to search multiple mediums for the correct button.
The three most common ways to change the channel being viewed on a television and/or cable/satellite box are by using the following remote control buttons; channel up or channel down (scrolling), the numeric keypad, and jump. It is important to note that these buttons may also be located on the device in which the remote control is controlling and therefore this description should not be limited to the functionality of the buttons available on the remote control. Additionally, it is possible, with certain equipment, to utilize an on-screen channel guide to change the channel being viewed. The on-screen channel guide has been developed with the intention of giving the user the ability to view the large selection of programming available at a single glance while it is the opinion of the author that this menu does not give any functionality differences than scrolling or using the numeric keypad to change the channel being viewed. Typically, the on-screen menu only offers blocks of channels, and more specifically only one channel can be viewed at a time. The blocks consist of a number of channels, an index on one channel apart. In this situation, a user can only view a few channels at a time with the on-screen menu, and due to the nature of programming placement by the cable and satellite providers, these blocks offer very little improvement over simply scrolling through the channels to find the desired content. However, it is important to realize that channel selection via an on-screen channel guide is less common and more sophisticated than the primitive methods which will be discussed in further detail below. Additionally, utilizing some type of on-screen channel guide to switch channels can be viewed as an equivalent approach to channel switching via the numeric keypad and/or the scrolling buttons and therefore will not be discussed in any great detail regarding a channel changing option.
Consider a remote control with only two buttons for switching channels, the channel up button and the channel down button. These two distinct buttons will make up the totality of the scrolling buttons for channel changing. The description of functionality of the channel up button is best illustrated by a picture as shown in FIG. 1 (prior art). First, in FIG. 1 a remote control 1 is depicted with two buttons, the first being the 1/0 power button 2 and the second button being the channel up button 3. Remote 1 is controlling a TV or cable/satellite receiver with ten channels; we'll call them 0-9. The most common on-screen menus only allow one channel to be viewed, while the description of content being played on other nearby channels is also possible to be viewed. There are other on-screen menu types that allow multiple channels to be viewed at one time simultaneously, but they are not the standard.
Upon depressing power button 2 on remote 1, the remote itself is not powered on/off, instead the power for the TV or cable/satellite receiver (not shown) being controlled is powered on/off. Assume that by depressing power button 2 on the remote control this will now power on the device being controlled by remote control 1 and the channel being viewed is by default set to channel 0. If the user would like to view channel 1, the user would simply press channel up button 3 once. To view channel 2 when the current channel being viewed is channel 1, the user would press channel up button 3 once more. Similarly, to view the rest of the channels, 3-9, the channel up button would be depressed a certain number of times. Thus, it can be said that channel up button 3 has the functionality of always increasing the channel being viewed by an index of one. Once channel 9 is being viewed and channel up button 3 is selected, the next channel to be viewed is channel 0 not channel 10, as there is no channel 10.
Thus, it can be said that channel up button 3 will always increase the channel being viewed by an index of one, except in the case when the largest integer channel is being viewed, then channel up will change to the lowest integer channel available. Therefore, a remote control that only contains the channel changing button channel up allows the user to view all channels that are available, while it limits the mobility of channel selection to directional in the increasing positive whole number sense. The whole numbers are a super set of the natural numbers, as they include all natural numbers plus zero. The description of channel down is best illustrated by a picture as shown in FIG. 1. First, in FIG. 1 remote control 1 is depicted with two buttons, the first being the 1/0 power button 2 and the second button being the channel down button 4. The remote is controlling a TV or cable/satellite receiver with ten channels; we'll call them 0-9.
Upon depressing power button 2 on remote control 1 the remote itself is not powered on/off, instead the power for the TV or cable/satellite receiver being controlled is powered on/off. Assume that depressing power button 2 on remote 1 will now power on the device being controlled by the remote control and the channel being viewed is by default set to channel 0. If the user would like to view channel 1, the user must press down button 4 nine times and in this way the user will pass through channels 9-2. Likewise if a use wants to move from channel 1 to channel 2, the user will have to depress channel down button 4 nine times.
Channel down button 4 has a functionality of always decreasing the channel being viewed by an index of one, except in the case when the lowest integer value channel available is being viewed, then the channel down button has the affect of changing to the highest integer channel available. Just like a remote containing only a channel up button, a remote only containing a channel down button allows the user to view all channels that are available while it limits the mobility of channel selection to directional in the decreasing positive whole number sense. Most modern television and cable/satellite receiver remotes do not contain only one scrolling button; instead they contain both channel up button 3 and channel down button 4. This allows the user to view all channels that are available, but allows channel viewing in a bi-directional sense of either increasing or decreasing whole number valued channels.
Many modern remote controls also include a keypad 6 with ten numeric buttons. Such a remote control includes the ten numeric keypad buttons 0-9, the enter button 7, and 1/0 power button 2. Power button 2 does not power the remote; instead it powers the television or cable/satellite receiver that is being controlled. In the simplest example, the device that is being controlled has only ten channels available. For example, 0-9 and this implies a channel field width of one digit. Upon selecting power button 2 on the remote control, the channel being viewed is by default channel 0. To change to a different channel, for example channel 1, the user would select the button 1 on numeric keypad 6 followed by enter button 7. Changing to any of the ten channels is accomplished by selecting the desired channel to be viewed followed by enter button 7. This type of remote will allow the user one button access to all ten available channels. This is a very convenient feature of this type of remote.
The final feature of remotes to be discussed is one which contains a jump button 8 and also a 1/0 power button 2. The device that is being controlled by this remote, for simplicity, has only two channels; we'll call them channel 0 and channel 5. Like all other described remotes, power button 2 controls the 1/0 power for the device being controlled, not the power for remote control 1. Now, assuming power button 2 has been depressed and the device being controlled is powered on, by default the current channel being viewed is channel 0. Changing to the other viewable channel is only possible by selecting jump button 8. The way jump button 8 works is that upon powering on the device being controlled, channel 5 is stored as the jump to location when jump button 8 is selected. Selecting jump button 8 will change the channel being viewed from channel 0 to channel 5. At this point, when the current channel being viewed is channel 5, jump button 8 will store as its jump to location channel 0. Said another way, jump will always store as its jump to location the previously viewed channel. The only caveat to this definition, and which is only the case in this example shown in FIG. 1, is that upon powering on the device being controlled, by default jump button 8 stores as its jump to location channel 5. While not an option for the TV or cable/satellite receiver that is being controlled by the remote in FIG. 1, a remote control's jump button can actually jump the user to the exact same channel that is presently being viewed. This is possible if the current channel being viewed is still the same channel being viewed after some other single channel changing operation. A more general and correct definition of jump button 8 is that it always jumps to the location of the previously viewed channel. The only exception to this definition would be when the device has just been powered for the first time after production or a “hard reset” has occurred, as there may be no value set for jump or a default value has been set for this single occurrence. As a rule, jump always has a jump to location of the previously viewed channel. The foregoing are the three most common ways of performing channel changing; either by scrolling, numeric keypad selection, or jump. Almost every modern remote today contains the following buttons for channel changing: the numeric keypad 6 values 0-9, enter button 7, channel up 3, channel down 4, jump 8, and 1/0 power button 2 as shown in FIG. 1.
Additionally, shown in FIG. 1 is the channel that will be viewed when power button 2 is depressed on remote control 1, assuming this powers on the device being controlled, and this is the channel that was being viewed when the device being controlled by the remote was powered off. The three channel changing options described above give the user the ability to watch any channel available by depressing certain combinations of channel changing buttons. However the combination of buttons which will be selected greatly depends on the current channel being viewed and the channel which the user would like to view.
Remote control manufactures have heeded this criticism and have attempted to hide all these buttons by utilizing liquid crystal displays (LCD) and touch pad screens within the design of the remote. Regardless of whether the buttons are cluttered on one remote, are hidden by an LCD screen, or are spaced out on multiple remotes, one simple fact is true. An improvement in the functionality of one button on either the single device controlling remote or the universal remote will have a vast improvement on the usability of all remote controls that contain the button. This type of innovation, such as improving the functionality of a button on a remote control, has not been the focus of handheld; electronic device manufacturers, but would yield significant gains in the eyes of consumers.